A top Pakistani tribal leader has vowed to wipe out the feared warlord Baitullah Mehsud, who has pushed Pakistan close to collapse. 30-year-old Qari Zainuddin, the leader of Taliban tribesmen opposed to Baitullah, said he had mobilised 3,000 armed followers and will attempt to wipe out the Pakistani Taliban chief and drive his al-Qaeda supporters from the country.
A Pakistani Taliban commander and two foreign fighters were among nine militants killed in a United States drone attack in the lawless North Waziristan tribal region, officials said on Monday.
The Taliban's main challenge comes on the financial and economic front and there Pakistan doesn't have the capacity to be of any meaningful help, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Pakistani Taliban has warned that boys and girls of its suicide squad will launch "massive" strikes across the country, including the commercial hub of Karachi, if military operation in Swat and other tribal areas are not halted immediately.
The Pakistani Taliban have introduced "moral policing" in parts of northeastern Afghanistan in a bid to enforce their puritanical version of Islam, Afghan police officials have said.
A former leading Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence officer, who claimed to have been a mentor of Taliban, has been killed almost a year after he was kidnapped by militants in the Waziristan tribal region.
A Taliban commander in Pakistan's volatile tribal belt has broken away from the militant outfit to form his own group, as he is opposed to suicide attacks on mosques and civilians.
The Pakistani Taliban on Thursday said they had not threatened to kill cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan if he holds a march to Waziristan, and blamed a Western news agency for falsely reporting the threat.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on a provincial cabinet minister on Monday. Seven people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up near Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain's residence in northwest Pakistan.Hussain, a vocal critic of the Pakistani Taliban, escaped unhurt in the attack. The bomber, a youth clad in black, detonated his explosive vest when he was stopped by the police.
The Pakistani Taliban on Thursday dismissed the military's claims that their chief in the Swat valley was 'critically' wounded, asserting that he was healthy and unhurt in the army operations in the restive region, where troops killed at least two militants in the latest fighting. The Taliban's response came in the wake of the military's recent statement that they had 'credible' information about Maulana Fazlullah being injured in the offensive against militants.
The Pakistan media has received a warning from the late Baitullah Mehsud's Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, which is dedicated to overthrowing the Pakistani government, to avoid publishing "anti-Taliban" reports.
The Pakistani Taliban on Thursday threatened to target Indians 'anywhere' in retaliation for the execution of Ajmal Kasab and demanded that India should return the body of the LeT militant involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks to his family.
Pakistani Taliban has vowed to bring back Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a US-trained Pakistani neuroscientist accused of firing at US soldiers and FBI agents in Afghanistan in 2008 as she tried to escape from their custody by force. Dr Aafia was handed a 86-year sentence by a federal court in Manhattan, US, on September 23.
Two days after Pakistani Taliban appointed a new chief, a US drone today targeted one of the key commanders Waliur Rehman as it fired missiles on his stronghold in South Waziristan killing eight people, mostly militants and wounding another nine.
In a major catch, Pakistani Taliban's top spokesman Maulvi Omar has been arrested along with his two associates in the lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan, reports said on Tuesday.
The Pakistani Taliban have rejected Interior Minister Rehman Malik's demand that any peace talks should be preceded by a ceasefire, saying any truce will follow the dialogue process.
Twenty-one Pakistani security personnel kidnapped by the Taliban from check posts near Peshawar were gunned down by the militants today, police officials said.
The Pakistani Taliban on Thursday lauded the action of Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American arrested for a botched car bombing in New York, but said he had no links to the banned militant group.
The Pakistan government and Taliban militants in the restive South Waziristan tribal region are expected to swap prisoners as part of efforts for a formal peace agreement. A formal agreement could be reached in three to four days. The swapping of prisoners is expected to take place at Tiarza in South Waziristan, sources said. An official said all of them were members of the Mehsud tribe.
The Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the attempt on the life of senior journalist and television anchor Hamid Mir, saying they would carry out more attacks on anyone "pursuing a secular agenda".
A 14-year-old boy arrested with five terror suspects, who were allegedly plotting an attack on a five-star hotel to kill Americans, has said that a Pakistani Taliban activist had lured him to the eastern city of Lahore with the promise of a job.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakimullah Mehsud and three others were killed in the US drone attack in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area near the Afghan border on Friday.
United States intelligence agencies believe Pakistani Taliban's new leader Hakimullah Mehsud has died in a gun battle with a rival faction weeks ago.
Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud received splinter injuries to his head and back in an American missile strike in Pakistan's lawless Waziristan tribal region that killed at least 15 militants, according to intelligence officials.Mehsud, who became the Tehrik-e-Taliban chief after the killing of his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud in a drone attack in August last year, was injured in Thursday's United States' missile strike at Basalkot in Shaktoi area.
Making a distinction between some violent extremist groups and others is counterproductive, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday told Pakistan that the Taliban's safe havens along the Af-Pak border have to be eliminated or both nations would suffer "more lethal and brazen attacks".
A Pakistani Taliban commander claimed the militants captured the two security personnel on Sunday night while troops were conducting a raid in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan Agency.
Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud has claimed that controversial American security firm Blackwater was behind the deadly bomb attack on a market in Peshawar that killed 105 people on Wednesday. In an interview with BBC Urdu, he claimed that Blackwater and 'Pakistani agencies' were involved in attacks in public places, in an attempt to discredit the militants. Reports in the Pakistani media have claimed that Blackwater has established a presence in the country.
The Taliban is showing its strong discontent as the high hopes given to it by the Pakistani military have been dashed, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Mehsud blew himself up with a hand grenade when troops surrounded his hideout around 0830 hrs at Zhob, 300 km north of Balochistan provincial capital Quetta.
Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud on Saturday issued a new audio recording saying he was alive and well, dismissing reports that he was killed in a United States' drone attack in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. The recording was provided by the Taliban to the media in northwest Pakistan a day after another audio message -- in which Mehsud said he was alive but did not mention Thursday's drone strike in Waziristan tribal region -- triggered reports of his death.
Faced by an impending offensive by the Pakistan military on its stronghold of Waziristan, the Pakistani Taliban have curtailed infighting amongst them only by coming up with a leadership power-sharing formula. Under the formula, 28-year-old Hakimullah Mehsud has been chosen as chief of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, while his rival claimant Wali-ur Rehman would continue to control the organisation's affairs as he did in Baitullah's time, The News reported.
As authorities in Islamabad asserted that the militants on the country's soil were in disarray, Pakistani Taliban on Saturday announced Hakimullah Mehsud as their new chief, days after reports claimed that he was killed in a duel with a rival claimant.
A Pakistani Taliban faction linked to terrorist Qari Hussain on Thursday claimed responsibility for the assassination of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, saying the 'man who killed him was from among us'."We claim responsibility for the killing of Salmaan Taseer. The Punjab governor was our target and we have planned this programme and the man who killed him was from among us," said Shakirullah Shakir, a spokesman for the Fidayeen group associated with Qari Hussain.
Nearly three years after she was assassinated, investigators have concluded that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed by the Pakistani Taliban in a gun-and-bomb attack in Rawalpindi. The FIA is expected to submit its report on the investigation to an anti-terrorism court on October 30. The FIA's investigation team was initially reluctant to submit the chargesheet to the court because it could not complete its probe regarding the three accused who are absconding.
Pakistan, in recent months, has been increasingly frustrated by the Taliban government's reluctance to eliminate the terrorist groups, including the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has said it will continue carrying out suicide attacks and targetting Pakistani security forces despite joining other militant groups in a pledge not to kill innocent people or to resort to kidnappings for ransom.
Hardening its stance, the Pakistani Taliban have announced the boycott of negotiations on Friday with the North West Frontier Province government unless it releases all its detained members under a deal signed last month.
The Pakistani Taliban have taken control of mines producing precious lapis lazuli stones in the insurgency-hit Swat valley and started operating them on their own. The Taliban have confirmed that they took control of the mines two months ago, when they arrived in the hilly area of Fiza Ghat, a resort on the outskirts of Mingora, the main city in Swat valley. The militants have appointed hundreds of local labourers to work round the clock to excavate lapis lazuli stones.
Taliban forces in Pakistan have announced a ten-day ceasefire in the restive north western Swat valley, as peace talks between a senior cleric and local authorities are believed to have struck a deal to enforce Shariah laws in some parts of the region.The announcement of the truce came a day after a Chinese engineer, abducted by the Taliban six months back, was set free in Swat as a 'goodwill gesture'.
Faisal Shahzad, the man behind the failed Times Square bombing plot, is seen in a new video footage along with Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, with the two shaking hands and hugging each other. After his arrest, the Pakistani American had claimed that he had met Mehsud and a host of other radical leaders, but investigators had then said they were yet to verify his claims. The video that has emerged shows a man who appears to be Shahzad shaking hands with Mehsud.
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